– Date – May 21th, 2013
– Send your cool ‘SCIENCE!’ shout-outs to
.
– Theme song by Steve Seamans of the Daisy Dillman Band. Get the song HERE.
– Thank you to everyone who has been purchasing books, Skepticality stuff, or using our Amazon link to help us!
– May 25th is a 'psudo-holiday' for many geeks!
– May 7th, 2005 was the birth of Skepticality….
Skepticism, Past and Future [2:20]
– Mystery Park, created by mystery-mongerer Erich von Däniken, opened May 23, 2003.
– Planet X or Nibiru was supposed to cause catastrophe around May 27, 2003.
– The Streisand effect (often beneficial to skeptics) dates from a May 20, 2003 lawsuit.
– PopUpArchive is a free archive & search engine for archived audio. It can transcribe the audio to make it searchable. You can request an account in the public beta.
– Sunlight Foundation launched the Churnalism US tool on April 24. Install the Chrome browser plugin to get automatic notifications of copied text.
– SkepticAction is a web site and Twitter feed that suggests simple, small activist actions that skeptics can take each day.
– Skeptic History facts are posted daily on social media find out where on this page at Tim’s blog.
Unnatural Virtue [7:25]
– The illusion of knowledge and related cognitive biases are discussed in various places in The Skeptic’s Dictionary and the Unnatural Acts blog.
– Bill Maher’s guest on May 17 was S. E. Cupp, who claimed to know that mass shooting have declined over the past 30 years.
– An article about her on The Blaze doesn’t add much to her claim.
– Some say that mass shootings are not increasing.
– Mother Jones says there were 62 mass shootings since 1982.
– USA Today says there were 146 mass shootings since 2006.
– Another site lists 30 mass shootings since Columbine in 1999.
– The New York Crime Commission lists 30 mass shootings since 1984. I guess w
– The FBI requires 4 deaths to count as a mass killing.
– Philip Tetlock’s book Expert political judgment: How good is it? How can we know? examines the confidence and inaccuracy of pundits of all sorts.
– Bob Carroll's books include The Skeptic's Dictionary, Unnatural Acts: Critical Thinking, Skepticism, and Science Exposed!, and for kids 9 and up; Mysteries and Science: Exploring Aliens, Ghosts, Monsters, the end of the world and other weird things.
– Paperbacks of Unnatural Acts and Mysteries and Science are available from lulu.com.
– The Skeptics Dictionary and Skeptic's Dictionary for Kids.
Skeptical Humanities [13:10]
– Goin' Berserk!
– Find more informat at the website: Skeptical Humanities.
Wikipedia [19:25]
– The single most powerful skeptical tool on the Internet today is Wikipedia.
– Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia Blog.
– You can find Susan Gerbic at her website.
The Odds Must Be Crazy [22:35]
– The Odds Must Be Crazy.
– This week's featured story is, "Picture Perfect".
– Please visit the story link for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by Barbara Drescher.
– Our producer and audio engineer is Brian Hart.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Please visit The Independent Investigations Group Los Angeles.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
– Wendy Hughes is on Twitter.
– Jarrett Kaufman is on Twitter.
– Barbara Drescher is on Twitter.
– Brian Hart is on Twitter.
– Brian Keith Dalton is on Twitter.
Interview: Dr. Michael Webber [28:58]
– Dr. Webber of the Webber Energy Group.
– His group is deep into alternative energy solutions.
– Turning landfill gas into usable natual gas.
– Derek was mistaken about the need for better battery tech right this moment.
– You can get natural gas powered cars.
– There is a Honda Civic which can actually clean the air it is so 'green'.
– What is fraking for natural gas?
– People claim that we have no idea what is in fracking liquid.
– The movie 'Gasland' made some bold and somewhat innacurrate claims.
– Fracking does NOT cause earthquakes of any noticible strength.
– The biggest issue with fracking liquid is more about the disposal of the waste.
– Dr. Webber sometimes blogs his reviews of alternative engergy documentaries.
– People should be more concerned about the air quality issues surrounding the process of fracking.
– Peak oil or gas is not as much of a concern as many make it out to be, the issue is more about cost and technology.
– There are ways to 'create' petroleum, they are not able to produce enough volume currently.
Outro Music [52:20]
– Outro music donated by Trent Brusky of Dropfox.
